Which to use
“cuiller” and “cuillerée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,263
- “cuiller” frequency rank
- #49,014
- “cuillerée” frequency rank
- 86277
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cuiller | cuillerée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Autre orthographe possible pour cuillère. | Ce que contient une cuillère. |
Where the eye mixes cuiller and cuillerée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. cuiller runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against cuillerée's 9 (CVVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cuiller and cuillerée
A purely visual mix-up. cuiller (\kɥi.jɛʁ\) and cuillerée (\kɥij.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “cuiller” sits inside “cuillerée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86277, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cuiller is recorded at frequency rank #37,263, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɥi.jɛʁ\. cuillerée is at rank #49,014, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɥij.ʁe\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 86277, this pair ranks #9,967 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cuiller vs cuillerée
Shared letters: ceilru. Private to "cuiller": -. Private to "cuillerée": é.
"cuiller" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "cuillerée" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cuiller ← ccuiller · ciuller · cuilelr · cuiler · cuillerr · cuillre · culiler · uciller
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cuiller" for "cuillerée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cuiller" vs "cuillerée" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cuiller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cuillerée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,967 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cuiller" and "cuillerée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cueille vs cuiller". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #9,967 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.